Companies and their business partners often use digital communications to complete business transactions. Some digital communication systems may permit business partners, such as outside vendors, to logon to a company's system to initiate and complete a business transaction. For example, some companies may use a system to create and transmit electronic business documents, such as purchase orders, to a vendor, or supplier's, system. Vendors may logon to the supplier's system to view the business documents, and may have questions about these business documents.
For instance, a vendor may logon to the supplier's system and see a business document, such as a purchase order, from the buyer for 300 vintage rock concert T-shirts. The vendor may want to clarify the rock bands in which the buyer is interested. To clarify this, the vendor may ask the buyer a question via phone, fax, or e-mail. Alternatively, the vendor may retransmit the entire business document from the supplier's system to the buyer system with the question contained in an appropriate field. The buyer may respond with an answer in a similar fashion, either by retransmitting the business document with clarifying terms, or by communicating with the vendor through e-mail, the phone, or fax.
The buyer and vendor may want to communicate for reasons other than clarification, such as when negotiating terms contained in the business document and adding additional terms to the business document. These situations may also require communication through the methods previously described.
In other systems, a seller may advertise a product by posting information about the product on a web server, such as the product's image, specifications, shipping terms, and price. Potential buyers may search the web server to locate the product and view the product's information using a Web browser. If a buyer has a question about the product or the terms of the sale, such as the shipping terms, the buyer may contact the seller using a web interface to send the question to the seller. The seller may receive the question through e-mail, and the question may be posted on the web server so that it is publicly viewable to subsequent buyers. The seller may respond to the question by either e-mailing the questioning buyer and/or publicly posting an answer to the web site.
For example, a seller may post information about a bundled lot of pocket knives on a web server. Potential buyers may search for and locate information about the posted pocket knives. The buyer may then use a web interface to send to the seller a question about the knives, such as how many are included in the lot. The question may then be posted to the web server on a web page, and the seller may receive the message through e-mail. The seller may respond by posting the answer on the web server and/or by e-mailing the questioning buyer.
In another system, one or more sellers may upload their inventory database to a peer-to-peer network. A buyer may logon to the peer-to-peer network and search for a particular product. After finding the product, the buyer may click on a button to initiate negotiations for the product. The system alerts the seller that there is a potential buyer willing to negotiate for the purchase of the product. If the seller accepts, the buyer and seller begin a negotiation process guided by preformatted screens, which allow a real-time chat geared towards making a deal. For instance, they may first agree on the quantity required, then the shipping terms, and then the price of the product. Finally, the seller has the option to accept the purchase order and/or issue an invoice or reject the deal.